Adriana Rojas-Villarraga

Fundación Universitaria de Ciencias de la Salud · Research Institute

Introduction: The antimalarials chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have been used for several decades in treating malaria and some autoimmune diseases—mainly rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)—with excellent efficacy and safety. Due to the massive use of antimalarials worldwide for managing SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 infectio...

Objective To assess the frequency of polyautoimmunity (PolyA) in a cohort of Colombian patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and to identify associated factors. Methods This is an analytical cross-sectional study in a specialized center., a comprehensive review of the medical records of SLE patients was performed from 2015 to 2020 in or...

Aim: Rheumatoid arthritis is a prevalent worldwide disease, associated with an increased risk of multiple metabolic abnormalities that generate a higher disease burden. Objective: To gather the available evidence on the epidemiology, pathophysiology, current perspectives, clinical implications and prognosis of metabolic abnormalities in patients...

Purpose: To assess, in a cohort of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with subcutaneous antitumor necrosis factor drugs (anti-TNFs), the levels of treatment adherence before and after implementing a comprehensive care model (CCM). Patients and methods: An observational study including RA patients under treatment with subcutaneous an...

Introduction and objective Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) is an anti-inflammatory drug with an unclear role in the treatment of patients with lupus nephritis (LN). This systematic review evaluates the evidence for IVIg in the care of patients with LN. Methodology A systematic search was done in the PubMed, EMBASE, BVS and OVID databases – All E...

Introduction The risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is 1.5–2 times higher than the general population. The fundamental risk factor for CVD is age, related to alterations at the arterial level. The aim of the study was to compare vascular age (VA) in RA patients under a strict treat-to-target (T2T) strate...

Purpose: Tofacitinib is recommended for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in patients with moderate to severe disease activity, but there is not enough evidence on its effectiveness after conventional DMARDs vs its use after biologics. The aim was evaluating the effectiveness of tofacitinib in RA as first-line treatment (after conventional DM...

Background Convalescent plasma (CP) has been widely used to treat COVID-19 and is under study. However, the variability in the current clinical trials has averted its wide use in the current pandemic. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of CP in severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the early stages of the disease. Methods A rando...

Resumen Antecedentes y objetivo Determinar las características operativas de la ecografía de glándula salival (EGS) en el diagnóstico del síndrome de Sjögren (SS) en una población de pacientes colombianos con síntomas secos. Materiales y métodos Estudio de pruebas diagnósticas en pacientes con síntomas secos que asistieron a la consulta de reumat...

Background The risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is higher than in individuals in the general population. The fundamental risk factor for CVD is age, related to alterations at the arterial level, called vascular aging reflected by arterial stiffness and endothelial dysfunction Objectives The aim of the...

Background COVID-19, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthrosis (OA) are diseases characterized by the secretion of cytokines related to the stimulation of the inflammatory response. Objectives To identify the differences in the cytokine and matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) profile within one acute infectious disease and two chronic inflammatory...

Resumen Introducción La artritis reumatoide (AR) es una enfermedad autoinmune caracterizada por una inflamación crónica que produce dolor y rigidez articular. El SARS-CoV-2 aumenta la vulnerabilidad clínica en pacientes con AR, lo que ha conllevado la implementación o el desarrollo de la telesalud. Objetivo Describir los cambios en el nivel de ad...

Resumen Introducción y objetivo Los criterios de clasificación del síndrome de Sjögren (SS) (ACR/EULAR-2016) incluyen la biopsia de glándula salival menor (BGSM), la cual utiliza el puntaje de focos (Focus Score [FS]), pero en algunos casos sigue basándose en Chisholm y Mason (CM). Nuestro objetivo fue evaluar la frecuencia de SS en pacientes con...

Resumen Introducción Los corticoides son hormonas liberadas por la glándula suprarrenal, con actividad sobre el sodio y el metabolismo de la glucosa, así como propiedades antiinflamatorias. Los primeros corticoides sintéticos fueron la prednisolona y la prednisona. El deflazacort es el más reciente de los corticoides sintéticos, con diferencias mo...

La artritis reumatoide es una afección autoinmune, crónica y multisistémica que requiere manejo multidisciplinar, siendo la supervisión continua fundamental para controlar su progresión. Tanto la artritis como el tratamiento generan un estado inmunosupresor que predispone a sufrir infecciones. Por la actual emergencia sanitaria ocasionada por el Sa...

Background Coronary artery disease (CAD) assessed by coronary computed tomography (CT) in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has been investigated in several studies, but with conflicting results. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature was synthesize the evidence on this topic. Methods The relevant lite...

Nanotechnology is a subject that studies, processes, and applies various functional materials, equipment, and systems, and controls substances on a nanoscale. Nanomedicine refers to its application in diagnosing, treating, preventing, and monitoring various diseases. Drugs administered through eye drops must travel a long distance to avoid various...

This study evaluated a non-face-to-face-multidisciplinary consultation model in a population with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is an analytical observational study of a prospective cohort with simple random sampling. RA patients were followed for 12 weeks (Jul–Oct 2020). Two groups were included: patients in telemedi...

Background/objective: The diagnostic delay of axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) is globally reported to be between 3 and 11 years. Early diagnosis and treatment have long-term benefits for patients and the health care system. Several international studies have evaluated some factors associated with diagnostic delay, but there are no known studies in...

Background /Objective: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystem autoimmune disease with a wide range of clinical manifestations. The latest classification criteria, EULAR/ACR 2019, have not been validated in a Latin American population of Amerindian ancestry. The objective of this study is to compare the sensitivity of the EULAR/ACR 2019...

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a gram-negative bacterium that adapts to the gastric mucosa and provokes symptoms associated with gastritis. Chronic H. pylori infection in patients with a genetic predisposition can trigger autoimmune diseases due to the immune interaction of cellular and humoral responses. Infections are a triggering factor for...

Objective: Although it is known that methotrexate (MTX) increases the effectiveness of biological drugs (mainly anti-TNFs) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), in real life, it is known that many patients using anti-TNFs are on monotherapy due to many causes. This article compares the effectiveness of certolizumab as monotherapy as combined...

Objective Autoimmune diseases generate an impact on the morbidity and mortality of patients and are a burden for the health system through hospital admissions and readmissions. The prevalence of readmission of patients with these diseases has not yet been described as a group, but rather as sub-phenotype. The objective of this study is to determine...

Background and aims: Autoimmune diseases (AID) share various clinical signs and symptoms and pathophysiological mechanisms including the increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The coronary artery calcium score (CACS) is potentially useful in improving the cardiovascular risk assessment. The aim of this study was to evaluate CACS in six AIDs ana...

Resumen Introducción El fenómeno de Raynaud (FR) es una respuesta vascular exagerada al frío o al estrés que se manifiesta por cambios de coloración de la piel; puede ser primario (RP) o secundario (RS). El objetivo de esta revisión sistemática de la literatura (RSL) es describir y analizar las principales diferencias para la detección de cambios...

COVID-19 is a newly emerged disease that has become a global public health challenge. Due to a lack of knowledge about the virus, a significant number of potential targets for using a particular drug have been proposed. Five cases with a clinical history of biopolymers in the gluteal region that developed iatrogenic allogenosis (IA) are presented h...

Introduction Over the past decades, incidence of SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) has increased due to early case detection and improved survival of patients. SLE presents at an earlier age and has a more severe presentation in African-American, Native American, Asian, and Hispanic populations. Worldwide, lupus nephritis (LN) is observed in 29–60...

Background Tumour necrosis factor-a (TNFa) inhibitors are one of the most used biological therapy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients without response to conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (cDMARDs). There is scarce information about biological DMARDs (bDMARDs) effectiveness as monotherapy in real life. Objectives To assess the...

Background rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic and disabling autoimmune disease, with a high clinical and economic burden. This implies the need to investigate therapies that maximize clinical results. Tofacitinib is recommended as a different alternative to biologic therapy when a patient remains with moderate or high disease activity after con...

Background The Covid-19 pandemic has generated restrictions in the mobility of people, affecting the face-to-face care of patients with chronic diseases, including autoimmune. The health emergency has created the need to establish follow-up alternatives, giving rise to telemedicine. Objectives To evaluate the level of attendance to teleconsultatio...

Introduction Sistemic Sclerosis (SSc) is a heterogeneous autoimmune disease with a high rate of progression and therapeutic failure, and treatment is a challenge, new therapeutic proposals being needed, being mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) considered as alternative therapy for SSc for its immunomodulatory capacity. We evaluated the efficacy and safe...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic, multisystemic autoimmune disease of variable presentation. Massive ascites in the context of SLE is infrequent. Even so, it has been reported that ascites may be the first manifestation of SLE. It is difficult to diagnose due to the multiple possible etiological causes of ascites. There is a rare ent...

Background and aims Digital tomosynthesis has proven useful in the evaluation of damage to joints. This study aims to describe the most common digital tomosynthesis findings for four rheumatological entities and to compare the usefulness of this technique with that of other imaging techniques. Materials and methods Following the PRISMA guidelines,...

The initial immune response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) includes an interferon-dependent antiviral response. A late and uncontrolled inflammatory response characterized by high activity of proinflammatory cytokines and the recruitment of neutrophils and macrophages develops in predisposed individuals and is poten...

Sjögren’s Syndrome compromises the exocrine function, producing xerostomia and xerophthalmia. It can appear as an isolated condition or associated with other autoimmune diseases (polyautoimmunity). The Unstimulated Salivary Flow rate (UWSF) is used to quantify saliva production. There is no objective evidence to differentiate the values in patients...

Background The number of plastic surgery procedures have been rising in the last few years. The morbi-mortality due to illegal use of biopolymers is a public health problem. One of the clinical consequences, foreign body modelling reaction, may be a precursor of ASIA (Autoimmune/Inflammatory disease induced by adjuvants) syndrome. The objective of...

Resumen Antecedentes y objetivo La tomosíntesis digital ha mostrado beneficio en la evaluación del daño articular. El objetivo del estudio es describir los hallazgos frecuentes a través de la tomosíntesis digital en cuatro patologías reumatológicas y comparar su utilidad con otras técnicas de imagen. Materiales y métodos Se realizó una búsqueda s...

Currently, traditional and non-traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease have been established. The first group includes age, which constitutes one of the most important factors in the development of chronic diseases. The second group includes inflammation, the pathophysiology of which contributes to an accelerated process of vascular rem...

Background It is not clear whether patients with some degree of immunosuppression have worse outcomes in SARS-CoV-2 infection, compared to healthy people. Objective To carry out a narrative review of the information available on infection by SARS-CoV-2 in immunosuppressed patients, especially patients with cancer, transplanted, neurological diseas...

Background: It is not clear whether patients with some degree of immunosuppression have worse outcomes in SARS-CoV-2 infection, compared to healthy people. Objective: To carry out a narrative review of the information available on infection by SARS-CoV-2 in immunosuppressed patients, especially patients with cancer, transplanted, neurological di...

Nanotechnology is a discipline that focuses on the study, processing, and application of several materials, devices, and functional systems, controlling matter at the nanoscale. Nanomedicine refers to its applications for the diagnosis, treatment, prevention and monitoring of different diseases. Topical drug dosage forms for eye conditions must tra...

Resumen Introducción El síndrome de Sjögren (SS) es una enfermedad autoinmune que afecta a las glándulas exocrinas condicionando síndrome seco. Los criterios diagnósticos se basan en pruebas serológicas, oftalmológicas, histopatológicas y flujo salival. Se ha propuesto el uso de la ecografía glandular salival como prueba diagnóstica. Escasos estud...

Resumen Introducción El síndrome de Sjögren (SS) es una enfermedad autoinmune, con compromiso multisistémico, especialmente de la función de las glándulas exocrinas. Los pacientes cursan con una alta carga de la enfermedad que compromete su calidad de vida, asociado sobre todo a fatiga crónica, ansiedad, depresión y disfunción sexual, entre otras...

Resumen Introducción El síndrome de Sjögren (SS) es una enfermedad autoinmune que compromete la función de las glándulas exocrinas, produciendo xerostomía y xeroftalmia. El método utilizado para cuantificar la disfunción glandular salival es el flujo salival no estimulado (FSNE). Objetivo Describir las principales técnicas de recolección del FSNE...

COVID-19 is a newly emerged disease that has become a global public health challenge. Due to a lack of knowledge about the virus, a significant number of potential targets for using a particular drug have been proposed. Five cases with a clinical history of biopolymers in the gluteal region that developed iatrogenic allogenosis (IA) are presented h...

Resumen La biopsia de glándula salival menor (BGSM) es uno de los principales criterios (no el único) para el diagnóstico del síndrome de Sjögren, y esto tiene que ir en conjunto con la clínica y los niveles de anticuerpos. Diferentes clasificaciones se han desarrollado para evaluar la interpretación de los hallazgos observados en la BGSM y poder c...

Resumen Introducción Existen diferentes sistemas de graduación para interpretar la biopsia de glándula salival menor (BGSM) en pacientes con síntomas secos. En la actualidad la metodología recomendada (Focus Score [FS]), aunque no se emplea de forma rutinaria, conlleva discrepancias diagnósticas. Objetivo Determinar la concordancia de la lectura...

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Therapeutic options including antimalarials, antivirals, antibiotics and vaccines are under study. Meanwhile the current pandemic has called attention over old therapeutic tools to treat infectious diseases. Convalescent...

COVID-19 is a newly emerged disease that has become a global public health challenge. Due to a lack of knowledge about the virus, a significant number of potential targets for using a particular drug have been proposed. Five cases with a clinical history of biopolymers in the gluteal region that developed iatrogenic allogenosis (IA) are presented h...

Background and aims: Non-invasive surrogates of cardiovascular (CV) disease such as endothelial dysfunction (ED) and peripheral arterial stiffness (AS) have been evaluated in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. The aim of this study was to systematically review and meta-analyze reports of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in SLE patients, as m...

Con el objeto de ponderar las condiciones actuales requeridas para un programa doctoral en Ciencias de la Salud en Colombia, se elaboró un documento base y de posición para explorar su viabilidad y factibilidad de desarrollo. Mediante una estrategia de revisión teórica, discusión de expertos y definición de categorías, se establecieron temas centra...

Introduction: IgG4 related disease is a fibroinflammatory condition characterised by lymphoplasmocytic infiltration with predominance of IgG4+ plasma cells, fibrosis, and in most cases elevated IgG4 serum levels. It can affect any organ and result in varying clinical manifestations. Steroids are the cornerstone of treatment, however there is a high...

Introduction IgG4 related disease is a fibroinflammatory condition characterised by lymphoplasmocytic infiltration with predominance of IgG4+ plasma cells, fibrosis, and in most cases elevated IgG4 serum levels. It can affect any organ and result in varying clinical manifestations. Steroids are the cornerstone of treatment, however there is a high...

Introduction: Over the past decades, incidence of SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) has increased due to early case detection and improved survival of patients. SLE presents at an earlier age and has a more severe presentation in African-American, Native American, Asian, and Hispanic populations. Worldwide, lupus nephritis (LN) is observed in 29-...

Objectives To assess the effectiveness, safety, and drug survival of subcutaneous (SC) abatacept (ABA) in a cohort of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in a real-world setting. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study from 2014 to 2018 in which patients with RA (1987 ACR criteria) were included. Patients were evaluated at a single rheumatolo...

The original version of this article, unfortunately, contained an error. The first and family name of Loreto Massardo was interchanged and is now presented correctly in this article.

Objectives To identify baseline predictors of remission and low disease activity (LDA) in early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from the GLADAR (Grupo Latino Americano De estudio de la Artritis Reumatoide) cohort. Methods Patients with 1- and 2-year follow-up visits were included. Remission and LDA were defined by DAS28-ESR (< 2.6 and ≤ 3.2, respectivel...

Resumen Introducción La enfermedad relacionada con IgG4 es una condición fibroinflamatoria caracterizada por infiltración linfoplasmocítica con predominio de células plasmáticas IgG4+, fibrosis y en la mayoría de los casos niveles séricos elevados de IgG4. Puede afectar cualquier órgano y llevar a manifestaciones clínicas variables. El tratamiento...

Objective The objectives of this systematic review and meta-regression were: 1) to compare the prevalence of cervical HPV infection between SLE patients and healthy controls and 2) to evaluate the relationship between cervical HPV infection and traditional and SLE-related risk factors for cervical HPV infection in these patients. Methods We conduc...

Background Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic multisystemic autoimmune pathology of unknown etiology with a variable course and a predilection for women of reproductive age. Chronic activity and flares of disease activity are correlated with greater damage accrual and mortality. Mortality and health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) are...

Background Observational studies have indicated a high but heterogeneous prevalence of low bone mineral density (BMD) and vertebral fractures (VF) in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Therefore, the objectives of this systematic review and meta-regression were: 1) to compare BMD between SLE patients and healthy controls and 2) to ev...

Funnel plots for the three models supplementary. A. Funnel plot of the model for case-controls. B. Funnel plot for GCT therapy. C. Funnel plot for vertebral fractures. (TIF)

Forest plot for vertebral fractures study. Regions codified are as follows: 1) lumbar spine 2) femoral neck and 3) total hip. (TIF)

Forest plot for case- control study. Regions codified are as follows: 1) lumbar spine 2) femoral neck and 3) total hip. (TIF)

Forest plot for therapy effect study. Regions codified are as follows: 1) lumbar spine 2) femoral neck and 3) total hip. (TIF)

Detailed search criteria for PubMed-MeSH database. (PDF)